ORANGE CYMS captain-coach Mick Sullivan is wary of Orange Hawks leading into Saturday’s Group 10 premier league local derby, he said as much on Friday morning.
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Even so, considering Hawks have only won one game this year and CYMS are flying high, the green and golds are viewing the game as a way to tune-up leading into the final two rounds.
“Based on the table, the result of the game is probably in our hands and to be honest, I’ve never seen a side or coach take so many positives out of so many losses,” Sullivan said, tongue firmly in cheek.
“But if we go on what (Hawks captain-coach) Jason (Gangaram) said then we certainly need to be wary of them.
“Even though Hawks are struggling they’ll always lift for local derbies … they haven’t been getting embarrassed
“I imagine with the year they’ve had winning a game like this would be like winning a grand final for them so if we do take them too lightly there is always a chance of them pulling our pants down.
“But I’ll make sure the boys are all ready for it, to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
CYMS are coming off a clinical performance – up there with their best of the season – in beating Mudgee while Hawks were spirited in losing to the Oberon Tigers last weekend.
However, CYMS still didn’t start all that well.
Dropped ball and resulting turnovers were still evident in the opening stages of CYMS’ win last weekend although it didn’t prove costly as Mudgee only led 10-6 at the break and the green and golds went on to win comfortably.
It’s still the biggest facet of the game CYMS need to improve on though, Sullivan said, and it will be a focus this weekend against the two blues.
“The biggest thing is definitely our starts,” Sullivan said.
“We’ve been starting slowly for some reason, the opening 20 minutes of the last few games haven’t been particularly good for us so that’s the main area we’ll be looking at this weekend.
“Otherwise, yeah, just fine tuning some stuff and continuing to work our way into the finals.”
Sullivan said CYMS will have all hands on deck on Wednesday with Dom Maley and Kyran Bubb returning to the side, although rumours lock Tim Mortimer is nursing a broken arm have gone unconfirmed.
Saturday’s local derby kicks off at 3pm, at Wade Park, following league tag and first division and an exhibition game between CYMS and Bloomfield’s under-8 sides.
ORANGE CYMS: 1 Ben McAlpine, 2 Semisi Katoa, 3 Jerome Harrison, 4 Brock McGarity, 5 Todd Murphy, 6 Dom Maley. 7 Mick Sullivan, 8 Simon Osborne, 9 Sam Hill, 10 Mitch Davis, 11 Larsen Marabe, 12 Brenden Cousins, 13 James Wynne
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
